With all of the focus on SOPA/PIPA/OPEN, it’s easy to lose sight that a Copyright Office proposal seriously jeopardizes the 17 USC 512 online safe harbors for many service providers. Specifically, the Copyright Office proposes to expire existing agent designations and then require periodic maintenance of designations or they too will be expired. In both situations, a service provider without a designated agent instantly loses all 512(c)/512(d) eligibility–even if the failure was an administrative accident or mistake, and even if the service provider properly filed a valid designation initially. Worse yet, the Copyright Office hasn’t shown how the existing database causes problems for copyright owners, so the Copyright Office is proposing to jeopardize these essential safe harbors for no apparent gain to anyone else.

In response to the Copyright Office’s proposal, twelve comments were submitted, including the comment that I submitted with the EFF and Jason Schultz. Regarding the proposal to expire existing designations and require periodic maintenance of future designations, the comments broke out as follows:

FOR: RIAA, Verizon/Internet Commerce Coalition (I treat these as identical because Verizon is a member of ICC, and their points were similar)

AMBIGUOUS: MPAA (seemingly leaning against the proposal but equivocal)

The CCIA’s opposition on this issue was well-stated: “it would be unsound and inconsistent with Section 512 to attempt to revoke the safe harbor and impose liability on services who do not resubmit contact information to the Office which the Office already has…Proposed § 201.38 is itself a formality which — at least as described in the NOPR — may also impose harsh penalties for failing to prepare redundant paperwork at the proper time.”

Some of the “AGAINST” comments wondered if the Copyright Office has the power to terminate a validly filed designation, because doing so creates a forfeiture and apparently exceeds the authority that Congress provided to the Copyright Office. I do hope the Copyright Office will consider the administrative law issues carefully before doing something that leads to an expensive lawsuit over its authority.

Some other interesting points raised in the filings:

* the RIAA made several aggressive proposals, including (1) a requirement that “the service provider…disclose any shareholders or related groups of shareholders (such as a family) with a majority ownership of the service provider; and any persons or entities with a controlling interest in or decision making power over the service provider,” and (2) “the Copyright Office require proof of the business address of the service provider, perhaps by requiring the entity to scan a piece of business correspondence and attach it to the designation as a PDF.” I don’t see it as the Copyright Office’s responsibility to validate service providers’ self-reported information, and I thought the requirement to disclose related entities was overreaching and creates traps for the unwary.

* Microsoft proposed “that the Office consider issuing OSPs a unique identification number corresponding to their submission of a designation of agent, and requiring the OSP to post this number where it also posts information about its DMCA agent and its process for submitting notices of claimed infringement. This requirement would enable users of the OSP directory to easily link a particular website with the DMCA agent designation (and related records) maintained by the Copyright Office.” While this proposal would solve one set of problems, I don’t think the Copyright Office has the authority to require the publication of this unique ID as a condition of the online safe harbor.

* Google believes only written takedown notices should satisfy the 512 requirements:

We urge the Office, however, to also note that takedown notices sent to designated agents must be in the form of a written communication. We are concerned that the clarifications and the availability of a phone number do not lead to a requirement that service providers designate a specific person to be contacted for voice communication or that leaving of takedown notices be authorized via phone calls or voice mail. Accepting takedown requests via phone or voicemail would present a multitude of problems: for example, lack of documentation to send on to the alleged infringer, lack of signature, problems with verifying identity, detecting abuse, lack of accurate metrics, scalability, and potential differences of opinion about what was identified.

While I completely agree about the problems of non-written takedown notifications, I’m pretty sure 512 doesn’t give the Copyright Office the power to effectuate this request.

* The Verizon/ICC filings encouraged the Copyright Office to warn rightsowners not to misuse takedown notices. For example, the ICC filing says “we urge the Copyright Office to post a prominent notice at the entry point to the database warning entities submitting DMCA notices that knowing material misrepresentations in 512(c) notices may trigger monetary liability.”

* The ICC filing also gave a specific example of the privacy issues raised by the designated agent database:

One woman who works as a designated agent for one of our member companies has received harassing “stalking-type” messages from people who are not copyright owners, but found her name through an agent designation. For precisely this sort of reason, it is important to allow email addresses of designated agents to reflect their function, rather than their name, and to allow designated agents to list P.O. Boxes as their address, wherever their address is a home address.

I frequently use the designated agent database to find contact information for a company when other resources fail me.

* The MiMTiD filing was a piece of work. It appears to misunderstand the existing 512 safe harbors, and most of it is just a rant against Google.

If you want to comment on the Copyright Office proposals, do so quickly. Reply comments are due December 27.